Can a transfer go through if the IBAN and SWIFT is correct, but the address and country of the bank is wrong?

Question

A customer of mine wants to pay me from the usa to my account with N26 bank.N26 Bank is a German online bank with no branches but available to customers in the euro-zone.I opened my account online in Portugal.When giving my customer my banking details, i sent bank country as Portugal but the swift code indicates Germany.Will the wire transfer go through with correct iban and swift but incorrect bank address, city and country.

Answer 1

One of two things will happen:

1. The money is routed according to the SWIFT and IBAN identifiers, and arrives in your account.

2. Somewhere in the chain, it will be noticed that the address don't match, and the money will be returned to your customer. The customer will generally lose any transfer fees charged along the way, plus possibly additional fees for handling the erroneous address.

In their written conditions for wire transfers, banks usually reserve the right to do either of these.

If you can get a correction to your customer before they submit the wire request, potential trouble can be avoided. If you can't, there's nothing to do but to wait and see what happens. You should probably advise the customer to watch out for returns -- and they will probably expect you to indemnify them for any fees they need to pay for the failed transfer.